It’s been a while since I was given the chance to interview a fellow group fitness instructor when New York Sports Club told me that there was a Star Wars themed class in Brooklyn—I had to do find out the details. They are running a few promotions at New York Sports Club in case you want to check them out at www.mysportsclubs.com

What is your name?

Amira Lamb

Where are you from?

I’m originally from Amherst, MA but have been living in Brooklyn, NY since 2001.

How many years have you been teaching?

I’ve been leading group exercise classes since 1994!

What classes do you teach for NYSC?

I teach BURN, Total Body Conditioning, Cardio Kickboxing, and a class based on the Star Wars movies called “Awaken Your Inner Force”.

What is the Star Wars Workout?

The workout came about after Disney/Lucasfilms contacted us at NYSC to develop a class based on the Star Wars movies. We bring elements like The Force, light sabers, and the athleticism of the Jedi into the fitness studio. We start class by tapping into “The Force” (which I would compare to energy or chi) with focused breathing and rhythmic dynamic movements. Then we do some light saber work including a face-off where the class is divided in two sections.

From here we move into 3 to 4 circuits that are time-based. Each circuit consists of 4 exercises. The first exercise incorporates the light saber such as the Chewbacca Chop. The second exercise is floor work using our own bodyweight as resistance and gliding discs such as the Padawan Push Up.

The third exercise is series of martial arts-based kicks. The fourth exercise in done for 90 seconds and it might be something like a Lightsaber Leap, Lightsaber Burpee, or Jedi Jacks. We actively recover from each high-intensity circuit by tapping back into The Force with focused breathing. To finish off the class we do Ab work with the lightsaber and then the Yoda Flow which is based on Tai Chi. The class was a lot of fun to develop!

How has the response been to it?

People love it and every class has been packed. The response has been so positive that we’ve extended the run of the class another two weeks at the New York clubs!

What is your favorite workout?That is a really tough question to answer. I love strength training on my own because it’s almost meditative. It’s when I can completely focus on ME. I get to focus on how I want to strength and mold my body. It’s absolutely empowering. I also LOVE leading classes like cardio kickboxing and Total Body Conditioning because a lot of the time, I DO the classes with my class.

What is your advice to workout newbies to stay motivated?

Explore different workouts to see what YOU like. Find something that makes you feel fantastic physically and mentally. You want to find something that hooks you. Find something that you look forward to doing either because of how it makes you feel during or afterwards.

If you tend to stick to things when you have a “partner in crime” – find your workout partner, keep each other accountable and have fun with it.

If data is something that motivates you – the list of fitness apps and gadgets options is never ending. I’m a huge fan of the FitBit. For people who just want to up their activity level in the number of steps they take each day or week – you can create Challenges within the app with up to about 10 of your friends.

Thank you Amira! May the force Stay With You! You can follow her on her website here!

(If you are reading this on a different site or a different feed than Brooklyn Fit Chick, it has been taken without permission.)

I am one of those people who love to complain how I won exactly one trophy when I was a kid. It was by the local Fire Department and they asked for kids in my grade to paint something that would speak to fire prevention. My family was big into camping at the time so I create a pastiche to forest fires which earned me first place which felt great!

(Here I am with my usual tennis shoes and messy hair.)

After that sweet win—personal victories have escaped me. I have won on teams and as part of a group effort but those solo prizes have been few and far between.

Never a winner when my Blogger peeps have a giveaway and I have entered almost every sweepstakes from Shape and SELF magazine with no results except SPAM emails from affiliate advertisers.

You know that game where you have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to win the prize?

What are the odds a person actually picks the actual number of beans and winds up coming in second because it was a two-way tie decided by a coin toss? (Me at the age of ten and I have NEVER played one of those games since then. It still stings to think about it…)

Well my luck change recently when I noticed a tweet from Reebok which had a photo of yoga goddess Tara Stiles signing a yoga mat. The tweet asked “what would you do if you won a yoga mat signed by Tara” and I quickly wrote back that I would finally learn how to perform a crow pose.

Well guess what? My lucky streak is starting to happen in 2016 because I received the following tweet:

Yippee! The mat arrived in two days and this cat lady is very happy with the design!

Now I just need to learn how to do the crow pose—LOL! Any advice for a crow pose-fearing yoga newbie– leave them in the comments below and hopefully I will be able to nail it sooner than later! (Will post pictures of my progress!)

Thanks so much Reebok & Tara! You really made me feel special. (My cats are enjoying laying on it, by the way!)

Fit Bottomed Girls Hits:

As some of you know—I am a NYC contributor for the popular fitness Blog Fit Bottomed Girls and this month I have had some articles featured there including:

A 30-minute HIIT workout that will rock you like a hurricane! In this one I combine High Intensity Intervals of cardio busts with weight bearing moves to get an intense workout in a short amount of time. In case you are wondering about my credentials—I am a certified personal trainer from the National Academy of Sports Medicine and have my group fitness certification from AFAA and try every workout myself before I hit the publish button. Let me know what you think of it!

Lower Ab Movies: I also reach out to my favorite health & fitness peeps with their best advice for different kinds of workouts and in this one they offer their favorite lower abs moves to lose the tummy pooch.

Book Vs Movie Podcast News:

Margo Porras of She’s Nacho Mama’s Blog and I co-host the “Book Vs. Movie” podcast (that you can subscribe to via iTunes at this link) and after being on the over a year our numbers keep going up and up. For example—in December we had the most downloads in our history happen and then in January we went up 50% over that which is totally insane but we are having so much fun with it.

Our newest episode was suggested by a fan—Perks of Being a Wallflower which we both love. I have it here if you want to listen to it but I also want to know what your favorite book to movie adaptions are and what we should cover next. Merci in advance!

Oh well, that’s it for me today. I will be back soon with magazine reviews, playlists, reviews and so much more!!

(If you are reading this on a different site or a different feed than Brooklyn Fit Chick, it has been taken without permission.)